But Vicki Puvalowski and Steve Wrubel couldn't have known what was to come when they promised to love each other forever on the altar of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Ubly, Mich.

On their wedding day -- Sept. 28, 1929 -- they danced. They ate Polish food, and they wore grand clothes, Vicki in a tea-length flapper-style gown and cloche and Steve in a dapper tux.

"She was this little girl with curly hair," he said, smiling, remembering when they first met at St. Mary Catholic Church in Parisville.

Although that was their hometown parish, Steve laughs a bit when he explains why they weren't married there.

"The priest wouldn't marry us in Parisville because it was a Saturday," Steve said. "He didn't want to marry people on a Saturday because then they wouldn't come to church on Sunday."

But that didn't stop them.

Steve, now 103, talks about how he cared for Vicki even before they married, when she was so sick she was taken to Flint for treatment of St. Vitus dance, also known as Syndenham chorea, which can develop with acute rheumatic fever.

"They took Vicki to Flint to a doctor or Vicki would have never made it," he said. Steve stayed with his sister in Flint, caring for Vicki while her parents were home in Parisville, running the farm.

"It was terrible, but she came out of it good. Then, Vicki got better, so I started looking for work."

Steve had gotten a job on the line at General Motors in Flint. Vicki, now 102, worked as a housekeeper.

A month after their wedding, the nation slid into the Great Depression. Steve lost his job, and the couple moved home to Vicki's parents' farm in Parisville.

There, food was plentiful, even if money was not. And there was always work to be done. Steve helped Vicki's dad, and took side jobs playing violin in a band at weddings and other events.

When the economy began to bounce back, Steve went back to work at GM and enjoyed a long career in the quality control department.

As Steve reminisces, Vicki smiles knowingly, nodding from time to time. She fell a couple of years ago, and now uses a wheelchair.

As the years passed, Steve said, he loved eating Vicki's polish cooking, her homemade sauerkraut and potatoes. They traveled, took cruises, played euchre, danced. He said they always worked hard. It was just how it was growing up in a large Polish farm family in the Thumb.

Even at 100, he worked, helping out at the Polish American Pulaski Association, in Holiday, Fla., where he and Vicki lived for more than 40 years after he retired.

Mostly, he just loved Vicki. And she loved him for 83 years.

Maybe it was the hard work that kept them both sharp and in such good health over the years. Maybe it was all that fresh, Polish food. Maybe it was because he and Vicki never had any kids to wear them out. Maybe it was the love.

Their niece, Yvonne Essenmacher of Washington Township said it's likely good genes.

"Longevity is a big part of the family," she said. "They have exceptionally good health."

There is no heart disease or diabetes, no high cholesterol, no cancer for either of them, Steve said.

Sure, he's got a hearing aid. And his vision is slipping away due to macular degeneration. But, he said, "all I take is aspirin sometimes when my back hurts." He was still driving at 101.

Up until a month ago, Steve lived in an apartment on his own in Florida while Vicki stayed nearby at a rehabilitation center. He'd visit her often, but it wasn't the same.

They came home to Michigan to be closer to family, and to be together. At Angelica's Place in Romeo, Vicki gets the medical support she needs, and Steve can share her room.

Together again.

Steve and Vicki have smashed the "record" set by John and Ann Betar of Fairfield, Conn., deemed the longest married couple in February by Worldwide Marriage Encounter, a California group dedicated to improving Christian marriages. Worldwide Marriage Encounter reports the Betars have been married 80 years, and were wed Nov. 25, 1932.

Steve and Vicki's nephew-in-law Jerry Essenmacher, said: "There isn't anybody in the United States who can come up with a marriage certificate that is before this."

He holds up the yellowed document that shows Steve and Vicki were married in 1929, and said jokingly that Steve is waiting for a congratulatory letter from the president.

Steve smiles, and said, "All I have to do is wait for a check now. ... I'd like a $100,000 or something like that. But what would I do with it? I'd give it away. That would make some people happy."